


Coldest Star, Oldest Tree

by Rasalahuge



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Broken Michael, Episode: s06e22 The Man Who Knew Too Much, Leviathans, Lucifer's Cage, M/M, Michael is a good son, Missing an Angel, now Lucifer knows why, past temporary child death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2018-02-22 08:39:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2501504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rasalahuge/pseuds/Rasalahuge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Lucifer's Cage two archangels watch the world go by, unaffected... apathetic... until someone opens Purgatory. Michael has been keeping a secret from Lucifer since the universe was new, now Lucifer is going to find out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coldest Star, Oldest Tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fantismal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fantismal/gifts).
  * Inspired by [A History of Heaven and Its Angels, as Understood by the Archangel Gabriel](https://archiveofourown.org/works/999466) by [Fantismal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fantismal/pseuds/Fantismal). 



> A one-shot of Lucifer and Michael in the Cage set in Fantismal's 'Missing an Angel' universe. Because Lucifer|Sammael and Michael broke my hearts in the (wonderful, amazing, stunning) Missing an Angel series (granted the whole series did but this one inspired me to write whereas Crowley|Cariel and Gabriel just made me want to curl up and cry). 
> 
> Title comes from the Elbow song ‘This Blue World’ the line is _‘And if you plot your course on the window pane / You'll see the coldest star in the arms of the oldest tree / And you'll know to come to me’_ which is now my song for Michael/Lucifer.
> 
> EDIT 18/07/15 : Now with bonus banner art!

After Sammy left the Cage became very dull. Michael had put his own pet human to sleep and kept him that way out of some misplaced sense of pity and then proceeded to ignore Lucifer in order to pout or whatever it was that he spent all day doing. Lucifer had tried in the beginning to prod and poke Michael into doing something, _anything_ even if it was carry on that stupid fight that Lucifer had never wanted in the first place. But Michael’s ability to just ignore everything was apparently greater than Lucifer’s ability to be annoying. It left the younger archangel with nothing to do but pout and stare blankly out of the Cage.

It had taken him a few millennia but after his Father had locked him in here he had carved little windows out into the world beyond. It wasn’t an escape route and the one time he’d used a window to try and contact Azazel it hadn’t ended well for him (although admittedly that had led to him being freed from his Cage temporarily and landed Michael in here with him, Lucifer wasn’t sure yet if that was a good thing or not). The windows did however let him look outside and see what was going on in the world. Or well on Earth which wasn’t the same thing but was close enough when there was literally nothing else to do.

So Lucifer sat and watched the world and he was pretty sure Michael was doing the same and they proceeded to ignore one another, Lucifer out of spite and Michael for whatever reason he thought might justify it. Michael’s mind had always been a puzzle to Lucifer.

_Good son._ Lucifer snorted to himself at least once a day. _If he was such a good son he wouldn’t have ended up here would he?_ He sneered silently _and yet he still sits and waits for orders like the little sycophant he is._

The Cage ran on the same time as Hell which meant they could literally watch everything going on up on Earth at their leisure. Lucifer decided from the start that there was one group of humans he wouldn’t watch. It would just anger him and there was nothing except Michael or his comatose pet to take that anger out on. Lucifer knew from experience Michael would just swat him away if he tried anything. Anger in the Cage was pointless; he’d learned that a long time ago.

Apparently Michael didn’t feel he needed the same restraint.

It happened one day, decades after Sammy's soul left properly for the archangels but just a few months for the humans. Lucifer had been watching a dictator (he lost track of which one, they all seemed the same to him) living his life of luxury while his people suffered when there was a sudden change in the Cage.

Change didn’t exist in the Cage. Lucifer was the only thing that changed… or had been until someone else got trapped down here with him.

When the noise came Lucifer considered ignoring Michael as he had been ignored but honestly? He’d been sitting doing nothing for centuries and if Michael was finally, finally doing something then Lucifer was absolutely going to pay attention. He was so _bored._

(Let’s just say he now knew how Gabriel felt when he was stuck in Heaven doing paperwork instead of flying around on Earth but he didn’t like to dwell on that because it just brought back memories of Gabriel’s stunned expression when the blade slid into his vessel)

Lucifer turned then to stare at his brother cataloging the noise as one of disbelief and nearly shuddered as the tension in the Cage suddenly ratcheted up by more than a few degrees.

“Michael?” He asked but was, as usual, ignored. At least this time however it wasn’t because Michael was being pissy.

“No, no,” Michael groaned getting to his feet and spreading his wings as much as the Cage would allow. All one thousand of them were flicking and twitching in agitation, “Castiel, Raphael _don’t,_ ”

That caught Lucifer’s attention and he turned back to his own window scouring to see if he could find the two angels in question. He huffed in annoyance when he realised he couldn’t find them, had no idea how Michael had found them through his window. He turned back to his brother who was practically vibrating now with tension.

“Michael?” He tried again slowly approaching.

“Not now Lucifer,” Michael dismissed him completely but Lucifer froze because those were the first words Michael had said to him since they were locked up down here. Michael’s eyes were fixed on something beyond the Cage, “Castiel _please_. Please hear me _don’t do it!_ ” He cried out, “It’s not… don’t… _Castiel!_ ” Michael let out a sound Lucifer had never heard from his older brother before. It was all pain and desperation and… fear?

“He can’t hear you Michael,” The younger archangel said slowly starting to approach again. What was Michael afraid of? Aside from Father’s wrath of course. He looked out of one of the windows again, scouring the Earth for the little rebel angel who had fallen in with the Winchesters but he still couldn’t find him. Had Michael found a way to look in on Heaven?

He thought about asking, even if Michael ignored him again, but then he felt it.

A shattering pain. It tore through his Grace and made the stumps of his wings sear and crackle with static.

He’d felt that pain before, but then it had burned.

He’d felt it when he looked into his little brother’s eyes as he died.

“ _Raphael,_ ” Lucifer found himself calling out against his will and he knew Michael had done the same.

Raphael was dead.

Lucifer felt sick.

Michael let out a sound that would haunt Lucifer for the rest of eternity and fell to the floor.

“ _I’m sorry!_ ” Michael screamed, “ _Whatever I did to fail you I’m sorry! Please Father! Please not again!_ ”

Lucifer watched in an almost detached fashion as his older brother, the one he thought was unbreakable, shattered.

He almost wished he remembered how to cry.

“ _Please!_ ” Michael was sobbing and Lucifer didn’t know what to do, he’d never seen Michael look like this. Except… why did he feel like maybe he had? “ _Father I’m sorry! Please! I won’t fail you again! I won’t disobey! Sammael…!_ ”

Lucifer jerked in surprise as the broken voice of his brother let that name fall from his lips. The name Lucifer had cast away, the one he had refused. What… what did that name have to do with Raphael dying?

“Michael?” He was close enough now to touch his brother’s shoulders above his wings. The moment his fingers brushed his brother however the younger archangel found himself being thrown to the floor and crushed. For half an instant Lucifer thought Michael had finally snapped and was going to kill him. Then a thousand wings and two pairs of arms enveloped him in a tight hug and Lucifer’s thoughts came to a screeching halt.

“Don’t leave me Sammael, please don’t go, I’m sorry,” Michael was sobbing into Lucifer’s ear, “I won’t leave you alone again, I promise. Please Sammael don’t go…” That name fell from Michael’s lips far more naturally than Lucifer’s chosen name ever had and if Lucifer had a heart in his true form then he was sure it would have ached at the reminder.

“Michael what…” He tried to say but his words were choked off as Michael held him tighter. What the hell had happened up there? Castiel had done something, that much was clear, and it had ended with Raphael’s death.

Had Michael reacted like this when Gabriel died? There was no one Lucifer could ask except Michael himself. If he had…

Lucifer didn’t feel guilt. He didn’t. He refused to feel guilty over being betrayed by his own family but…

He hadn’t wanted to kill Gabriel, but Gabriel had forced his hand. If it had caused Michael this much pain…

Regret was acceptable. Lucifer could regret Gabriel’s death and the pain it caused Michael, if it had been anything like this.

He wouldn’t feel guilty.

(Guilt might break him)

Lucifer had no idea what had happened except that his little brother was dead and Michael was breaking in his arms still sobbing out apologies to a brother who had been lost long ago and to a Father who didn’t care anymore.

With Michael wrapped so fully around him he couldn’t even move to try and find out. He could only sit and wait for Michael to calm down and perhaps then, finally, they could talk?

It took a long time. But then Lucifer and Michael had more than enough time. Hours in the Cage were nothing on Earth and hours was how long Michael needed to calm down and realise just what he was doing to Lucifer.

The first Lucifer knew of Michael’s apparent return to sanity was the body holding him going stiff all of a sudden. The younger brother had let his mind drift thinking up increasingly unlikely scenarios as to how Castiel of all angels had managed to kill Raphael. His money (if he had any money) was on some kind of horrific accident if only because that was basically how everything went wrong in Castiel’s presence. He remembered that Gabriel thought that was funny. He wished he could stop thinking about Gabriel, it hurt to think about him.

“Lucifer?” Michael’s voice was flat and emotionless and Lucifer absolutely did not miss the way Michael had been calling him by his original name for hours.

“So you aren’t actually insane. Pity,” Lucifer said because it was expected of him and because he wasn’t going to let on how good being cuddled by his big brother had felt.

The warm body of his brother pulled back abruptly as though a puppet on strings. Lucifer didn’t mourn the loss of Michael’s warmth, he didn’t and no one would convince him otherwise.

“I…” Michael started and swallowed heavily, “Sorry,” He mumbled and shuffled back towards his window.

“Oh no you don’t,” Lucifer snarled at him, “I did not just get cuddled into the floor by a crazy asshole for you to just shuffle off with nothing more than a sorry!” Michael paused and Lucifer could have screamed for frustration and joy because Michael wasn’t ignoring him anymore but neither did he seem particularly inclined to talk about it, “What the fuck was that about?” Lucifer demanded. When Michael didn’t look like he was going to answer Lucifer lashed out with anger and frustration and tore at Michael’s primary wings. Michael reacted instinctively to buffet him back before Lucifer could get his fingers into the vulnerable wing joints. The beat of a Michael’s wings sent Lucifer flying backwards and his own shoulder joints beat uselessly in an attempt to stop himself. But Lucifer had no wings anymore, they’d never regrown after their Father ordered them cut off and Michael had done as commanded.

Both of them remembered that terrible day in that moment, Lucifer sprawled on the floor of the Cage and Michael stood over him, wings extended.

Lucifer glared at him accusingly and Michael winced before offering Lucifer a hand to his feet.

It was a peace offering that Lucifer wasn’t in the mood to accept. He wanted answers.

“What. Happened.” Lucifer growled at him and Michael flinched, “Raphael’s dead,” Lucifer jabbed viciously and Michael nodded, “Castiel killed him?” This was less certain at least until Michael nodded again, “How?”

A long silence and Lucifer saw Michael shudder.

“How?” Lucifer demanded again climbing to his feet himself.

“He opened Purgatory,” Michael’s voice was barely a whisper and Lucifer frowned.

“But… how?” Castiel couldn’t possibly know how to open Purgatory only the archangels did and even then only in theory. Michael was the only one to ever actually open up Purgatory.

“Doesn’t matter,” Michael shut his head and closed his eyes, “Castiel opened Purgatory and took all the souls to gain enough power to kill Raphael,”

“Why?” Lucifer was curious, why would Castiel want to kill an archangel?

“Raphael was trying to free us to start the Apocalypse again, Castiel objected,” Michael said his voice weary.

“He did put in a lot of effort and die, twice, to ensure we ended up here,” Lucifer conceded even though he was slightly pissed that Castiel was apparently perfectly happy to kill their brothers to make sure he and Michael stayed down here.

“That’s not the point Lucifer!” Michael snapped furiously and Lucifer had to step back away from Michael’s wings before he was buffeted again. Michael growled in frustration and pulled his wings in as tightly to his body as he could and instead started to pace, “He opened Purgatory! He let all the souls out!”

“And?” Lucifer asked frowning, “I mean Eve’s not easy to handle but…”

“Eve is the least of their worries!” Michael snapped, “And she’s dead anyway, thanks to the Winchesters,” He whirled around and paced further away, stepping neatly to avoid the comatose form of his vessel, “There are things in Purgatory Lucifer, things that should stay there!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lucifer frowned.

“Of course you don’t,” Michael spat at him, “You don’t remember,”

“Remember…” Lucifer was confused now, confused enough to be angry that Michael wasn’t giving him straight answers, “Michael just tell me what the problem is,” He ground out.

“ _Leviathan,_ ” The word was spat out with a ring of pure hatred masking… terror? Lucifer blinked and stared at Michael with a frown even as the name rang a bell.

“Leviathan? But… I thought… it was a horror story you told Gabriel and Raphael so they’d have games to play in the Void…” Lucifer said slowly remembering all those games that Gabriel and Raphael played where he and Michael would pretend to be the monsters of the Void. He vaguely recalled Michael and Father talking about Leviathans and being locked up once but he didn’t actually believe that they were real. They weren’t real… were they?

“They’re real Lucifer,” Michael said his voice low and quiet and still masking his terror poorly.

“You… never said anything,” Lucifer frowned, “Those times we opened Purgatory to seal Eve away, or with the dragons…” He didn’t like to remember that and he knew Michael didn’t either. Back before he realised how bad the time displacement on Hell was, back when he thought Gabriel abandoned him instead of bringing Michael to him to talk. He knew it had been years for him but how long had it really been for them?

No. He gritted his teeth.

He refused to feel guilty.

Gabriel had abandoned him, so had Michael.

It didn’t matter if they’d been gone two centuries or two minutes they would still have picked Father over him.

“Why do you think I never let any of you open Purgatory yourselves?” Michael asked his voice sad and pained as though he knew what Lucifer was thinking of. But Lucifer hadn’t let Michael in to see what he was feeling in a very long time.

“I stopped trying to work out why you did anything a long time ago Michael,” He said letting some of his spite enter his voice again because he hated that tone Michael was using, as though he understood, “The answer is almost always because Father said so,”

The barb struck true and Michael flinched away from Lucifer gave a cold smile.

“Why are you so worried about it anyway?” Lucifer continued, “Aside from the fact that we’re stuck in here which makes it clearly not our problem if I remember correctly Leviathan always got beaten in the end,” Leviathan were horror stories true, but Lucifer doubted they could really eat angels.

“No,” Michael shook his head and closed his eyes, “No Lucifer we never beat the Leviathans,”

“Excuse me?” Beating the Leviathans aside what was this about, “We?”

“Come on Lucifer!” Michael spat, “You’re not that stupid! Think about our brother’s games. _Michael and Sammael versus Leviathan._ ”

“That was because Raphael always insisted on being you and Gabriel didn’t want to be the Leviathan and get beat up,” Gabriel pretended that he wanted to be Lucifer in those games but Lucifer knew better, Gabriel had wanted to be Michael but Raphael had never let him. Although apparently not just that because Michael was shaking his head and turning back to his corner, “Michael?” Lucifer frowned at him.

“It doesn’t matter,” Michael said curling back up and staring out of his window again, “As you said, it’s not our problem. We’re stuck in here,” he was shutting down again and Lucifer nearly screamed in frustration. Finally after centuries (millennia really) Michael was _talking_ to him. He wasn’t going to let him go back to ignoring Lucifer.

“Tell me,” Lucifer snarled stalking forward and grabbing Michael’s wings again not caring that he’d just be sent to the floor yet again. He wanted to know, he deserved to know.

Lucifer had never questioned why he couldn’t remember all that much from before Gabriel and Raphael were created, he just assumed it had been more of the same. The two of them playing in the Void and Michael being ridiculously overprotective with occasional visits to Father.

Apparently not.

“Michael,” Lucifer demanded and forced his core temperature to drop as far as possible even as he shoved Michael in the shoulder. He knew Michael hated it when Lucifer gave him a cold shock even if it was accidental. His brother wouldn’t ignore him now he was doing it on purpose…

He wasn’t expecting Michael to let out a desperate cry reminiscent of that broken noise he had made when Raphael died. His brother flinched away, worse than any other before, and stared at Lucifer with an expression of utter betrayal, as though Lucifer had used Michael’s worst weakness against him. But Michael didn’t have any weaknesses…

The two of them stared at one another, Lucifer demanding, Michael pleading. When it didn’t look like Michael was going to relent Lucifer took another step forward and deliberately put his ice-cold hands against Michael’s face.

“Don’t,” Michael choked flinching yet again, “Please don’t,”

“Talk to me Michael,” Lucifer demanded.

“I hate that you’re cold,” Michael confessed finally, refusing to look at his brother, his partner.

Millions of years, Lucifer thought suddenly, strangely numb, millions of years summed up in one sentence.

“Michael I’m ice, it’s who I am, _what_ I am. I can’t stop being ice any more than you can stop being earth,” Never, never had Lucifer felt such gut wrenching pain. Not even when Michael had cut away his wings. At least then he understood, hated it yes, but understood because Michael never ever disobeyed Father and Father had ordered it. But to say Michael hated Lucifer’s cold was to say that Michael hated Lucifer.

“No,” Michael’s voice was a whisper, broken and lost, “No you weren’t always ice,”

What?

“ _What?_ ” Lucifer felt the pain freeze inside him.

“You were warm once,” Michael’s eyes closed and… was he crying? “Warm like a shallow tropical sea full of light and brightness and beauty. And I ruined it,”

“I’ve never been warm…” Lucifer said dumbfounded not knowing what else to say.

“I killed it, your warmth,” Michael confessed, and it was a confession even Lucifer could see that, “I killed you,”

No.

No Michael wouldn’t.

“I just wanted you to stop,” Michael didn’t even seem to notice that Lucifer was going into shock, “Just for a little while I wanted you to stop. So I left you alone, Father told me to look after you but I left you,” No Michael had never left Lucifer, not until forced to pick between Lucifer and Father, “I left you and you were so bright and _they_ were attracted to the light.” A flash of something crossed Lucifer’s memory, something he couldn’t quite remember except that it was dark and he was alone. But Lucifer had never been alone, not until Gabriel left him in Hell and disappeared for who-knew-how-long, not until Father had locked him away, “They came and I was too far away and I couldn’t get there in time and…” Michael was sobbing again, sobbing out his sins and Lucifer could do nothing but stand there and watch, “ _I killed you_. I left you alone when I knew it wasn’t safe and you were so little and couldn’t defend yourself.” He was pulling in on himself, “And _He_ tried to take you. He had you in His arms and I didn’t want you to be gone forever. I didn’t,”

He?

Not Father surely but then who…

“Death,” Lucifer breathed, “The Leviathans killed me and Death came,”

“Father locked them away and he brought you back,” Michael murmured, “Not for me, I didn’t deserve it. I failed, I disobeyed. But you didn’t deserve to be punished for what I did. But you came back different, you weren’t warm anymore. He’d taken all your warmth away and _it was my fault_ ,” Michael’s voice broke one last time, “I killed you,”

This… Why hadn’t Lucifer known about this?

Why hadn’t any of them?

Was this why…?

He had to know. He had to know right now, what he didn’t remember.

He lunged forward, keeping his hands cold because it gave him an advantage over Michael and he needed that, just for a minute. He grabbed Michael’s head again and turned him so his eyes met Lucifer’s and then the younger archangel was in his mind.

Lucifer assaulted his mind so ruthlessly that if Michael had resisted at all his mind would have ended up torn to shreds. But he didn’t, his mental defenses gave way beneath Lucifer’s search as though they didn’t even exist and suddenly Lucifer was back in the Void.

He was back and watching himself dance and play and chatter just a tiny speck of light compared to what he would become.

But he was warm.

He could feel it in Michael’s memory. The warmth radiating from the fledgling archangel.

He watched and felt as Michael played with… with Sammael because this little fledgling _was_ still innocent, naive Sammael. He watched as Michael got tired and wished for a break but Sammael would never give him one. He watched as Michael tricked him into getting some space. Watched as Michael dimmed himself, drifting within sight of the beacon of light that was Sammael but not letting him get close. Watched as Michael stumbled across a Leviathan, as more hunted down the brightness of Sammael.

Lucifer watched as everything he thought he knew about his brother was torn to shreds just from a few minutes of his own pained screaming.

A few minutes of screaming and then Father’s Wrath.

Lucifer had felt that Wrath more than once but he’d been protected first by Michael and then by his own anger and pride. This younger version of Michael had nothing of the sort to protect him.

_**“I won't do it again. Father, I won't disobey you again. I won't. Not ever again. I will be a good son.”** _

Lucifer tore himself out of Michael’s mind as sharply as he’d entered the moment he heard the vow. A vow that had turned into a mantra that he’d heard too many times before.

He’d asked once if Father ordered it would Michael kill him?

He’d felt betrayed when he realised that answer was yes.

Now he realised _why_ that answer was yes.

Michael would kill him because as far as Michael was concerned he was already dead.

He had always been dead.

And because Lucifer was Michael’s gift, the one he didn’t deserve but was given anyway. But gifts could be taken away as well as given and Michael must believe that if he failed again then Father would take his gift away.

“You blame yourself,” Lucifer wondered suddenly.

That was why Michael was prepared to kill him on Father’s orders. Because he believed he had failed again by letting Lucifer fall as he had and so Father was taking his gift back. He thought what Lucifer had done was his fault…

“I killed you,” Michael murmured.

Lucifer was still angry, more than angry in fact. He still felt betrayed by Father. Abandoned by his brothers. He still hated humanity and angelic interference with it.

But something in him shifted.

The ice started to melt.

He let his body temperature rise as far as it would go and then leant forward and enveloped Michael in an embrace.

They might be stuck down here for the rest of eternity but Lucifer thought that it might not be so bad anymore.


End file.
